


Prison Talk

by Dain



Series: Femslash February 2018 [10]
Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: F/F, Post-Episode: s03e14-15 The Boiling Rock, Pre-Relationship, argument
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-11
Updated: 2018-02-11
Packaged: 2019-03-16 12:57:12
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 483
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13636743
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Dain/pseuds/Dain
Summary: Imprisoned together in the Boiling Rock, Mai and Ty Lee have little to do other than talk.





	Prison Talk

**Author's Note:**

> Day 10: Alone

The cell was small, bare, and cold; not one used for long-term imprisonment, and also not one normally used for housing multiple prisoners together. That could have been part of the punishment, but the real punishment would have been separating them, and Mai was fairly sure they’d been put there only because the prison had more to worry about than the two of them.

Ty Lee had started doing flexibility exercises that she claimed helped to warm her up, though Mai suspected they also played a role in calming her down after the events of the day. It had, after all, been quite…eventful.

Mai decided to sit down.

She also decided to watch Ty Lee do her stretches in silence, which made it all the more surprising when she found herself saying, “You didn’t have to do that for me.”

Ty Lee faltered, and carefully retracted her outstretched limbs so that she was in a mostly normal sitting position. “What do you mean?”

“You know what I mean.” If Mai hadn’t been so exhausted, it might have come out as a snap. “You could’ve let the fight happen, and only I would’ve been arrested.” She didn’t have any illusions about the outcome of the fight if Ty Lee hadn’t intervened; even if she was a match for Azula on her own, the princess had been backed up by prison guards, and there were only so many people Mai could take on at once with no support.

Ty Lee chewed on her bottom lip. “I didn’t _want_ you to fight. I thought if I could stop it before anyone got hurt…well, hurt _badly_ …maybe we could get away and then…”

“And then _what?_ ” Mai asked, irritation bursting in her chest. “We’d fly off the island?”

“I don’t know!” Ty Lee said. “Maybe we could’ve escaped the same way Zuko did! I wasn’t really thinking!”

“That much I figured out.”

“ _I was worried about you!_ ” Ty Lee, apparently, had no reason to keep her voice down. “I’m sorry for not wanting to stand there and watch her hurt you! I’m sorry for trying to _help!_ ”

Mai glared at the floor as if it were at fault for her current predicament. “I didn’t mean to - whatever. I was trying to say thank you.”

She didn’t look up even when she heard Ty Lee stand and walk over to her. She sat down next to Mai, placing her hand close enough to hers that they were almost - but not quite - touching, and resting her head on Mai’s shoulder. “I’m glad you’re okay,” Ty Lee said. “Even if we are in prison.”

“There are worse places to be,” Mai said. Ty Lee’s head on her shoulder surprisingly didn’t feel awful. “And worse people to be with.”

Ty Lee sighed, but nodded her agreement. “I wish it didn’t have to turn out like this.”

“Don’t we all.”


End file.
